Clarke Martin, at right, has been lobbying for the revitalisation of the Beaumaris campus of Sandringham College as a standalone year 7-12 school. He is now standing as an independent candidate in the November state election. Photo: Eddie Jim

Middle-class Generation X families, dubbed the ‘‘I can’t do it all’’ generation by social researchers, are behind a push to revive inner-city state secondary schools as they choose a mortgage in a well-serviced area over private school fees.

Lobby group Our Children Our Schools was formed in March from a wide sweep of suburbs, including Elwood, Yarraville, Beaumaris, Preston, Southbank, Richmond, Strathmore, Heidelberg and Coburg, fighting for the revival and restoration of state secondary schooling in Melbourne’s inner and middle-ring suburbs where middle-class families are now firmly entrenched paying high mortgages, filling primary schools to bursting and looking at the next stage of education.

David and Lea Campbell and their children Carl and Sophia.
Photo: Justin McManus

The alliance has had some success with the announcement in the May state budget of funding of a junior high school in Coburg, an extension of the Albert Park College and the retention of the former Preston Girls Secondary School site for future use but the battle for new schools and expensive upgrades goes on and the November state election is likely to bring these issues even more to the fore.

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And social researchers say Generation X is a political force to be reckoned with as they have a lot on their collective plates. Neer Korn, director of social research group The Korn Group, has been studying and interviewing Gen X families for the past 15 years and says they are characterised by a desire to ‘‘live where they want to live’’ but also by the angst of ‘‘they’re not sure how they are going to be able to do everything’’ - juggling childcare costs, high mortgages and education for their family, let alone getting their children through university later and into the housing market.

He says Generation X, born from 1961 to 1981, are the children of the 1970s and 80s post-Family Law Act divorce boom and subsequent second families, which affects both family support and inheritance, and they are the first generation to limp late into the (increasingly expensive) housing market after paying university fees introduced by the Hawke government. They have never experienced job security and they have also watched as the infrastructure their parents and grandparents took for granted was sold off, run down or privatised. ‘‘Gen X’s experience is it’s every man for himself,’’ he says.

When it comes to secondary education, Korn says many Gen Xers have felt "private education is a necessary sacrifice’’, partly to gain an edge in a competitive world but also because successive governments have run down state schools. He says middle-class Gen X families will choose state education ‘‘if there’s a critical mass of families doing the same’’ but, where there is not, parents ask: ‘‘Am I game enough?’’

Collingwood-based demographers .id have been working with many inner-city municipalities on their future education needs and their research shows that "critical mass" is here. Senior forecaster Johnny Barnard says the number of children being born in Australia has soared, up from 230,000 a year in 1976 to 309,000 in 2012, middle-class families ‘‘are more likely to stay in the inner city’’ and many schools were closed before these trends were obvious.

In the City of Port Phillip, for instance, the 2011 census showed the municipality had 10,042 children under the age of 15 and 45 per cent of those were pre-schoolers, with Elwood-Ripponlea and Port Melbourne experiencing the greatest increase since the 2006 census. Those 4500 pre-schoolers from 2011 are now filling the area's kinders and primary schools and more of the older children are flowing on to local secondary schools. The data also shows the median mortgage for the municipality in 2011 was $2200 a month, $400 a month higher than the Melbourne-wide average, while the median household weekly income was $1672 a week.

Elwood College has seen its year 7 enrolments rise by 32 per cent in two years and some of its feeder schools are reporting significant falls in the number of grade 6 students going on to private schools, from highs of 80-90 per cent, down to 40 per cent in two or three years. Lobby group Friends of Elwood College is pushing both major parties to rebuild the ageing school. "The school has a good reputation in the community and ... parents are increasingly weighing up the costs of a private school education with the benefits of attending the local state school in their community," spokeswoman Susan Constable says.

At the other end of the municipality, South Melbourne resident Fiona Hehir has been campaigning for improved public secondary schooling in the inner south for almost a decade. She says rebuilding Albert Park College has shown middle-class parents will choose good-quality state schooling when it's provided and she says fewer children now go on to private schools from Albert Park Primary where her daughter attends. "A lot of families who had their children on the Wesley and St Michael's lists have let them drop off and now send them to Albert Park College."

And the more state schools improve, the more middle-class families flock to them. In the inner north, David and Lea Campbell researched primary and secondary schools before they ‘‘took out a big loan’’ and moved to North Fitzroy three years ago. Their children are now at Merri Creek Primary School and will go on to the well-regarded Northcote High. Mr Campbell, an engineer, attended Ivanhoe Grammar on a half scholarship as a child and rejects the suggestion that he’ll be shocked by how rundown state secondary schools are compared with private schools when his oldest child makes the transition in two years. ‘‘I think it’s the other way around; I’m shocked at how opulent private schools are.’’

He says moving to an area ‘‘full of urban professionals’’ means his children and others at Northcote High will benefit from going to school with a cohort of children from ‘‘well-educated, middle-class families’’.

Nearby Coburg secured $3.5 million in the state budget for a junior high school after population modelling showed the area was awash with families. Anyone at a Coburg auction or in a local park could see this but demographic projections from .id, commissioned by the City of Moreland, helped persuade the state government.

In some areas, the battle is much, much tougher, however. The Seddon, Kingsville and Yarraville group, "SKY High", is lobbying on behalf of the more than 2000 children at the four local primary schools who will need secondary education in the next few years. The increasingly popular family area has no secondary school - the nearest are at Footscray or Williamstown - and Footscray City College is already looking at zoning to manage demand. Demographer .id's analysis for the City of Maribyrnong shows almost 4000 school-aged children in Seddon, Kingsville and Yarraville with another 1334 young couples resident in those suburbs likely to have children.

Across the bay, Beaumaris families are facing a similar fight. Forty-one-year-old Sally Connor loves her children’s primary school, Beaumaris North Primary, and would like her two children to attend a co-educational state secondary school but the local Beaumaris campus of Sandringham College has been under a funding cloud for years, which has hurt enrolments, despite ‘‘so many young families in the area’’.

Beaumaris School Community Group is pressuring both major parties to commit to a standalone 7-12 secondary school and group member Clarke Martin three weeks ago announced he would stand as an independent against Liberal Murray Thompson in the very safe seat of Sandringham.

Ms Connor, who works in human resources and attended a private school in Shepparton, says she’s never been involved in a political campaign or party but when she utters the words politicians are learning to dread, it’s clear Gen X families want their concerns heard. ‘‘Cathy McGowan’s successful campaign has been an inspiration to us. We are listening to what the community wants.’’

She says the desire to send her children to a local co-educational state school is not just about high house prices and private school fees; it’s about anchoring the children to a community and continuing the connections forged at the primary school.

‘‘Having a local secondary school is a main driver for people I speak to, regardless of working status, income level, whether they rent or own in the area. Some wonder whether they’ll have to move by the time their kids go to secondary school so they can move into the zone of a public secondary school that offers a local, 7-12 option,’’ she says.

Mr Martin says there is strong local support for a school at the Beaumaris site but the cloud hanging over its future has set up a destructive cycle. The state government’s announcement in June that it would not commit to refunding the school as a standalone secondary school had an immediate impact. ‘‘Year 7 enrolments dropped from 67 to 23 within weeks," Mr Martin says. Even local parents with children at private schools want improved state secondary schools, he says. "They say it helps hold private schools to account."

And, unexpectedly, it is possibly private schools that could lose the most from this demand for improved state secondary schools. Viable state alternatives in the inner and middle-ring suburbs may increase pressure on private schools over their oft-criticised fees and beyond-inflation rises but chief executive of Independent Schools Victoria Michelle Green sounds unfazed. She says enrolments in Victorian non-government schools have grown steadily every year since 2002 and "a growth area is lower-fee schools meeting particular demographics in parts of Melbourne".

Outer-suburban, lower-fee private or public schools are not where middle-class Gen X families are looking but it's possible there is room for - and need for - both inner-suburban public and private schools. Ms Green says inner-suburban private schools have steady enrolments and as they "have little room to grow their aim is to consolidate existing student numbers".

And perhaps the choice about schools, where and how to live just comes down to money and priorities. Financial adviser Anne Graham, managing director of McPhail HLG Financial Planning, says her clients have been ‘‘facing this conundrum for years’’. ‘‘The biggest thing we see is people having children later and doing the fun things earlier. When they come and see us they usually have got reasonable jobs and incomes, one part-time and one full-time. But they have to make choices about mortgages, private schools and retirement planning.''

Ms Graham says historically "private schools have won out" with middle-class clients but younger families face higher mortgages and poorer job security and private school fees may lose out when this generation faces higher university fees for their children. “Middle-class clients can’t have everything,” she says.

2 comments

As a gen x'er myself, my choice for public education over private comes from my own views that I don't think you get that much more in the private school environment other than paying heaps more for education and an entree into a different demographic. That doesn't interest my family.

I think the demographer is more on point. There is concern about selling off assets that our grandparents 'may' have taken for granted, and having access to services which as taxpayers we should expect.

I think paying taxes that fund basic state services like public education, a reasonable standard of roads and public hospitals shouldn't be under threat, and when they are, the public is entitled to ask why? And particularly when land closer to the city is more valuable, the reason for selling off that land is obvious.

Public education is also seen as providing a public good and providing social order.

Maybe it's about security, and as a generation we are more cautious because we've seen what can happen when families lose their homes due to financial pressures & through family breakdown. Gex x's parents were the first generation that split up without stigma attached and single parent families would have done it a lot tougher, hence the cautious attitude perhaps toward finances and using public services.

Both my husband and I are Gen X'ers and left school in year 10. We both later returned as fee paying, full time working students. Both of us attained undergraduate law degrees. I've gone on to attain a Masters in Law and Conflict resolution. Public education works and provides an excellent standard. Why would I drive a fancy high cost, high maintenance car, when I can drive a trusty, reliable car that does the job! Same argument really.

Commenter

Hypatia

Location

Heidelberg

Date and time

July 14, 2014, 9:16AM

While I can agree with much of what this article says I cannot agree with SKY High's lobbying. Zoning is only an issue for public schools that are "full" or if your kid has a bad history in schools (i.e.: school refuser, expulsion, etc.). If a school has room for students, you don't need to worry about your zone.

I don't know much about what Footscray has to offer, but Williamstown is a 15 minute drive MAX from any of those suburbs (more like 10 mins from Yarraville) and has two decent public high schools that I know of, Bayside Secondary and Williamstown High. In recent times Bayside has been particularly keen to get more enrollments, but can't seem to shake that old 'tech school' reputation that stems from their origins. Both schools are right next to Williamstown train station which, conveniently, is on the same line as the Yarraville and Seddon train stations! Actually, now that I think of it, Baside Secondary has its junior 7-9 campus in Williamstown and a 10-12 senior campus in Newport, which is even CLOSER to these three suburbs by car (roughly 10 minutes drive) and STILL accessible by public transport (train + walk or train + bus for lazier kids).

The schools available are not that bad, and I can't help but feel that SKY High would have more success in lobbying for improved funding and resources for the schools that already exist, so I really question their motives in trying to get a new school. A bit of snobbery from the new popular suburbs in the area, perhaps?